Half Inch High: Alternative Chapter 25 (FULL) (Patreon)

Chapter 25: Plan of Action

"Hmmm." Makoto sat there in thought for a few moments before her train of consciousness was derailed by one of Aomori's comments.

"You wouldn't know her." She said not even looking up from her book. "This Hayashi girl falls completely under the radar. Not only is she a 1st-year, but up until joining the track club— temporarily— she ran straight home from school almost every single day and wasn't even in any clubs. The only interesting thing about her is that some people in her class spread rumors that she ate her ex-boyfriend. But, unfortunately, it turns out he was just into mouthplay."

"How did you—"

"Chihiro forced me to exploit my news club connections since she didn't have you to mouth off to for the past couple of days."

By this point in their friendship, Aomori's knowledge of people in Hanichi was second to only one and that fact didn't surprise her as much as it should have. She couldn’t call it creepy, considering how much she's exploited that very same type of knowledge from her in the past. Letting out a subtle thanks, she returned to sipping her melon soda. The sound of Chihiro chattering about her track team problems slowly faded into the background as the seed of an idea began to form in her mind. That very same seed began to sprout roots as she started listening to Chihiro again.

"...I mean, the rest of my girls handle events way better than her, but when it comes to speed, that little shrimp is one of the fastest I've seen in a while!" Eating the rest of her food with an undeservedly smug smile on her face. “Not as good as me or ‘she who shall not be named,’ of course, but definitely in the top 10— no, maybe even top 5…”

“And she’s quitting because she isn’t losing weight?” Makoto asked.

“Ugh, don’t even get me started!” Chihiro groaned, slumping onto the table. “I totally get caring about your figure and crap, but I don’t wanna hear those words ever again. It’s all she talks about!”

"You're the same way aren't you, Makoto?" Aomori said, her completely flat voice making it almost impossible to determine whether or not it was a joke.

"Jeez, I'm not that vain!"

"You've been sipping on the same glass of melon soda for the last half hour and aren't even halfway through…" Looking up from her book, Aomori quickly compared her and Chihiro's side of the table to Makoto's. "And that's the only thing you've ordered all night!" She raised her voice, showing a slight bit of emotion in protest of Makoto’s questionable dieting.

“I’m just too stressed out to have an appetite right now…” Her lame excuse made both Chihiro and Aomori sigh. While that may have seemed like some flimsy excuse, it was pretty much the truth. Despite being emboldened with newfound confidence thanks to the idea currently brewing within her head, Makoto still felt bad about everything that happened during the meeting. She didn’t have any appetite and even hanging out with her friends to take the edge off couldn’t help her. Their group hangout continued for an hour after that until Aomori and Chihiro had to go.

“Thanks for not being super mad at us, Mako-chi! We’ll make it up to you, we swear.” Chihiro apologized while Aomori just bowed to show her remorse. Both of them paid for the meal before packing up their stuff and leaving Makoto to ponder to herself some more. But before Chihiro left, she had a favor to ask of Makoto.

“Oh, by the way, Mako-chi, can you grab my sneaker? I kinda kicked it over to your side while we were chatting.” She asked, rubbing her socked foot against one of Makoto’s legs. Recoiling in disgust as the track star’s post-practice foot sweat brushed against her shin, Makoto plugged her nose and reached down under the table.

“Ugh, no wonder nobody was sitting around us…” Holding the extremely well-worn shoe as far from her face as possible, she quickly handed it over to Chihiro. “You gotta get some new shoes.” With that last piece of advice that Chihiro intentionally ignored, she was off and Makoto was left alone at the table. Looking at the time, Makoto also decided to go home to think about her secret idea some more. But before that, she had something more pressing to attend to. Back when Chihiro rubbed her foot against her, sweat wasn’t the only thing she felt…

“Of course…” It was very subtle, but looking under the table, Makoto saw something something quivering beneath one of the wrinkles in her loose sock. Sighing, she gathered up her stuff and grabbed the tiny with the hand she used to pick up Chihiro's rank sneaker before leaving the restaurant. Going to somewhere more secluded, she looked around to make sure nobody was nearby and began questioning the not-so-mysterious tiny.

Completely exhausted with his clothes completely drenched and stained with sweat, all it took was one sniff for Makoto to understand what was abundantly obvious. On one hand, being trapped beneath Chihiro’s feet was a hell she wouldn’t wish upon her worst enemies, but on the other, Makoto had no idea about whether or not the tiny deserved to be punished in this way. Restraining the tiny’s body with her thumb, Makoto glared intensely until her thumb pressed up against an unusual softness. Confused, her thumb gently pulled up the tiny’s shirt until a distinct pink-laced bra peeked out.

Makoto blushed and quickly pulled down their shirt back down. After both her and the tiny’s flustered expressions went away, Makoto began to piece things together. With their short boyish hair and less than modest chest size, it most likely would’ve been easy to tell that the him was actually a her but given her unfortunate ½ inch stature, it would’ve been easy to misunderstand. As she finally gave the tiny some room to explain herself, the events leading up to her imprisonment in the hellish environment that was Chihiro’s shoe made complete sense.

“I-I was taped up by some bullies in my class,” She coughed. “just when I finally managed to get out of their shitty trap, I was found by the track club, and then…” The tiny’s eyes drifted off as they tried to repress some of the trauma.

“That’ll do it…” Makoto murmured under her breath, letting out a sigh. “Howabout you, like, try sticking with a better crowd next time.” She said, pausing as the weight of those words clicked in her mind. Makoto cleared her throat in a feeble attempt to ignore any intrusive thoughts and kneeled on the pavement to let the tiny go. Before she let the tiny tomboy out of her palm she had one more thing to say to her.

“Oh, right. I know you, like, went through a lot but…” She averted her gaze. “Chihiro’s still my friend so, if you report her I’ll do something a lot worse than tape you to a locker room floor.” She said her eyes narrowing to a particularly threatening glare. Not one to be complacent, the tiny objected to this.

“You’ve gotta be kidding me--”

“I’m not one for bullying you little guys, but I’m just letting you know. If I hear that you squealed about any of this,  I’m gonna introduce you to the many post-practice socks that Chihiro just loves leaving around my house whenever she spends the night.” Makoto said, using her thumb to pin her to the palm of her hand. All the color had drained from the tiny’s face as Makoto’s threat registered.

“And if that’s not enough I could always just hand you back to her directly…”

Quivering from fear and helplessness, the tiny girl reluctantly agreed before she was promptly dropped off at the nearest tiny bus stop. While their meeting may have been brief, as Makoto walked to her house she cursed herself for how she acted towards the tiny.

“Damn, Chihiro. As if my reputation wasn’t bad enough…” She sighed, face palming as she walked. Later once she had gotten home, Chihiro found herself endlessly typing away at her phone deep into the night as she worked out every intricacy of her plan and only stopping once she was fully satisfied. Eyes glazed over from staring at her screen, Makoto collapsed onto her bed fully ready to tackle tomorrow. In her mind, the only thing standing as an obstacle to her path of success was… only getting 3 hours of sleep.

“IT’S ALREADY 5 AM?!?”

Later during lunch period, Rentaro and Furyu found themselves alone in the club room. While they were just as emotionally affected by yesterday’s demoralizing meeting as everyone else, they both believed that giving up now would be the final nail in the coffin. As for Megumi, she had still shown up to school but her attitude was quite concerning. It was the only thing Rentaro and Furyu could think about as they discussed ways of bouncing back from yesterday’s catastrophe.

“I mean, it was kinda scary ya know. Never seen her be so quiet and crap. Usually, she’s the one spoutin’ crap about how important not givin’ up is.” Furyu said, her desire to slam her fist onto the table restrained only by her concern for Rentaro's safety. It was something she normally wouldn’t worry about, but in that moment it felt like her hand would go straight through the table.

“She’s probably blaming herself for what happened…” He clenched his fist. “Damn it! I wish I wasn’t so helpless!!” Collapsing onto his hands and knees, he banged his hand against the table over and over again until he was promptly stopped by Furyu.

“Leave violent outbursts to me. It ain’t a good look for someone like you.” She said, scooping Rentaro up between her fingers. Not only did this help snap him out of his self-deprecating tantrum, but it helped him realize something else.

“You’re hand…”

“S-Sorry,” Furyu placed him back down on the table. “I’m just as pissed as you… if not more.”

Grabbing her hand, only increased how much she was trembling. The more she thought about what happened yesterday, the angrier it made her. The amount of restraint it took for her to not go storming into the student council room to pick a fight drove her crazy but she had to hold firm. Playing punch out with the school’s top brass would only make their situation worse. The two stayed silent and stared at each other as their thoughts brewed for a few moments. Their presence induced a sense of calm between them, followed by a sudden realization in the form of a light blush.

“M-Moping like this won’t cheer her up, haha.” He said turning away. “All we have to do is stay positive and comfort her the best we can.”

“Y-Yeah, it ain’t the end of the world just yet.” Furyu also turned away. This short pep talk was once again followed by another bout of awkward silence, but this time was a little different.

“Also, just cuz we’re goin’ through it doesn’t mean our bet’s called off!”

“Are you sure you’re not the real pervert here!?! Why would you think I’d be thinking about that at a time like this!?!” Anger and confusion mixed into the air like the fumes of a perfume store as the tiniest hint of jealousy faded in from afar, but for the two of them… it was a pleasant distraction. Meanwhile, as Furyu and Rentaro went to cheer Megumi up, Makoto was setting her plan into motion.

Hiding behind a wall in the cafeteria, she sneakily observed the track team’s newest recruit from afar as she ate her lunch. While she had planned on waiting for her to finish eating, that seemed to have been a much more arduous task than she initially expected. What would’ve taken only 10 minutes for someone of her size ended up taking almost half an hour. She wasn’t a slow eater though, quite the opposite actually— she ate at a speed that would put most competitive eaters to shame. The amount she was consuming was almost improbable. Makoto had caught her in the middle of eating lunch and over the past 30 minutes she watched Kaede Hayashi consume 5 wrapped sandwiches, an entire party-sized bag of chips, 3 yakisoba pans, 4 onigiris, and in addition to the contents of a bento box bigger than her head, she also ordered a full-course meal from the school cafeteria.

“Obsessed with losing weight,’ my ass!” Makoto grumbled, starting to lose her patience. Before she started losing her sanity, the girl had finally had her fill— or rather the girl had run out of food.

“Thank you for the food...” She said very nonchalantly in contrast to the sheer amount of food consumed in one sitting. After she had put all of her stuff away (an arduous task in and of itself), Kaede Hayashi casually exited the cafeteria, walking past Makoto as she did. She planned on acting immediately but a shocking sound caused her to hesitate.

“Grrrrglgg…” The passing sound of her stomach grumbling as she walked by left Makoto speechless. She was somehow still hungry even after everything she had witnessed. Chalking it up to just a typical high metabolism, she snapped herself out of her bewilderment and went up to Kaede. For a moment she imagined what Megumi would do in this situation. Boldly grab her shoulder and strike up a conversation? Act like a fellow weight loss enthusiast? Coax her into joining the club, perhaps? While there was no doubt in her mind that Megumi would be able to pull all of them off somehow, Makoto was no Megumi, nor did she have the reputation to strike up a casual conversation. Making sure Kaede was within earshot, Makoto prayed that her more underhanded methods would win over in the end. Taking a deep breath, she talked loudly into her phone.

“Ehhhh? Seriously? No way! That's, like, so crazy. Who woulda guessed the ‘Sizzling Oomori Teriyaki set’ contained so much fat.” Upon hearing the name of the meal she had just ordered, Kaede curiously turned to face Makoto. Seeing her reflection in her phone screen, Makoto couldn’t help but smirk at seeing every piece of her plan fall directly into place. “Yeah, I heard they got some special chicken seasoning from Hokkaido, or something, that makes it so you… uh, don’t feel full after eating it. And like, that’s kinda awesome but I’m pretty sure whatever they put it in makes you gain, like, 6 extra pounds after eating it just once.”

Despite not wanting to eavesdrop the volume of her “phone conversation” made it impossible for someone as weight-conscious as Kaede to ignore. Hiding behind a nearby wall, she poked her head out to continue listening to what Makoto was talking about.

“Don’t worry, I got ya! I know this totally foolproof weight loss strategy that makes you lose weight like crazy while also making you super popular.” Glancing over at the black reflection of her phone, Makoto was all but ecstatic to see her dark orange hair peeking out from behind the wall. Thinking she had sown enough seeds of curiosity in Kaede’s mind, Makoto began to walk away to provoke Kaede to the point that she inquired about her “foolproof weight loss method.” Things didn’t go quite to plan. Glancing behind her as she walked away, she was incredibly shocked to see that Kaede was also starting to walk away in the opposite direction.

“Pfft, like that’d ever work. With cow udders like those I doubt she knows a single thing about losing weight.” Kaede murmured under her breath. While Makoto’s technique may have worked on a novice or someone incredibly vain, there was something that she failed to take into account. Kaede Hayashi was once so desperate to lose weight that she willingly clicked on enough pop-up ads to give every computer in her house a virus. This irredeemable blunder had given her an almost unbeatable scam detector. Watching her walk away was not only personally humiliating but it was also personally insulting. Makoto wasn’t one to let trash talk slide but she had to contain her anger if she wanted whatever was left of her plan to work. Angrily biting her lip she backed off into the cafeteria to think about what she should do next over a small bite to eat. Upon turning the corner, however, she learned that Kaede Hayashi wasn’t the only one eavesdropping.

With a despondent look on her face, Megumi stood beside her with a tray of food in her hands.